Wednesday, June 16, 2010

I really have slacked off on writing or posting things here on my blog lately. For the few people who actually read this, I apologize. Believe it or not though, there is actually someone other than myself to blame for my absence. Her name is Angenette Crawford-Sharp. She is my wife. For the last four-and-a-half years, she has been a Middle School Science Teacher. the most dedicated, almost to a fault, Middle School Science Teacher that any school, student or parent could hope to have. She was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING at what she did. Unfortunately, that meant at times that our children and I went on the back burner.

The woman has boundless energy. She was getting up at 4:45 am so that she could get dressed and be at the bus stop by 5:46 am. She would ride the bus to the Transit Center where she would transfer to the bus that would take her down the street that her school was on. This entire process lasted until roughly 6:30 am. You have to understand that this was late by her standards. Before we lost our car, and she was able to drive to work, she was there at 6:00 am so that she could have "ample" time to set-up for the day. The roughly 45 minute travel time which that time of the morning would take about 12 minutes in a car was a real cramp to her style.

The school day actually started at 8:30 am and would last until 4:00 pm. During that time she would teach 5 classes and end the day by conducting a meeting because she was the Team Lead. She attended countless meetings on her team and departments behalf and relayed that information to her constituents in a timely and efficient manner. She handled all discipline issues and discipline referrals for her team. She coordinated field trip and PRO activities with the other 8th grade team and their team lead. She also worked very hard to coordinate her lessons with the other 8th grade Science teacher. All the while, he made no attempt to do the same. Last but not least, there were the parent contacts. I would guess that she spent a third of her day emailing or calling parents. She talked to them about their child's grades and what it would take for them to get the grade that the parent wanted. She talked to them about their child's discipline or more appropriately put, lack thereof.

Busy day right? I get exhausted just thinking about it. Guess what though. It is just getting started. At the end of each day, she would hitch a ride home with a co-worker of her's who lives on our side of town. At this point you may be wondering why she didn't catch a ride with that person in the morning to avoid having to get up so early and ride the bus. The answer is fairly simple. That person did not get to school early enough to allow my wife the time that she needed to prepare for her students and her day.

Once she arrived home, I would immediately run out the door and head to work. Which left her at home alone 4 out of 5 weeknights. From the time she walked in the door, she would entertain our children who would cling to her from the moment that she walked in the door until the moment that their head hit the pillow that night. She fed them a snack even though most days I had just given them a snack. She prepared dinner and had it on the table at 6:00 pm every night. She bathed them, read to them and then put them down to bed at 8:30 pm.

It was at this point, nearly 16 hours into her day, that she would take a shower, and get herself ready for bed. But only so that she could sit in bed, surrounded by papers and projects that she was grading and lessons that needed prepared for the next day. A few times, I would come in the door between 10:30 pm and 12:30 am and find her slumped over in this pile of papers asleep. But most of the time, she was still hard at it, insisting that she "finish looking over one last classes" assignments for that day.

It wasn't until I turned the light off and insisted that she lay down that she finally conceded that the day was in fact over. This generally happened around 1:30 am. Only so that she could get up and do it all over again in roughly 3 hours.

You may or may not have noticed that my last blog entry was posted on June 3rd. My wife's last day of the school year was on June 4th. Since that day, I have delighted in every moment that I have been able to spend with her and our children Lauryn and Ben. Especially her. I am attempting to make up for the lost "us" time that we missed over the last 4 and a half years. And that friends, is why I haven't posted a blog entry for the last 13 days. I have been spending time with my wife.

I will do my very best in the coming days and weeks to do better about posting on here. I must warn you though. I don't anticipate my wife starting her new job as a Nursing Assistant until mid to late July. So, if my entries are sparse in the time in between, I do hope that you understand. :)

McClanahan, who played man-happy Blanche Devereaux on the still-popular '80s sitcom Golden Girls, had suffered a minor stroke earlier this year while recovering from bypass surgery. Lawrence adds that at the time of her death Thursday, McClanahan “had her family with her. She went in peace."

Still in syndication, Golden Girls ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992. Only last year, McClanahan's costar, Beatrice Arthur, died from cancer. Estelle Getty died in 2008. Surviving star Betty White, 88, is currently enjoying a remarkable resurgence in her career, having recently hosted Saturday Night Live.

Born in Healdton, Okla., Rue lived in six towns by the time she was 8. Her father was a road builder who moved from one project to another. She found solace in acting ("the only thing I ever wanted to do") and after four years at the University of Tulsa moved to New York, where she worked as a part-time file clerk while trying to find jobs in the theater.

Her first job was off Broadway, in 1957, and she finally hit Broadway in 1969. TV work came from soap operas, until she made it on CBS's Maude, starring Beatrice Arthur, starting in 1972. She played Maude's best friend Vivian.

But it was Golden Girls that put her on the map and led to fame, fortune – and several husbands. In all, she had six, including actor Morrow Wilson, whom she wed in 1997 and who survives her, as does a son, Mark Bish, from her first marriage.